


Day 1. Poisonous.

by Munnin



Series: Fictober [1]
Category: Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Aftermath of Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 17:00:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16141589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Munnin/pseuds/Munnin
Summary: Fear was a poison. Don’t let it spread.





	Day 1. Poisonous.

“Fear is a poison.” Savric Ishsha whispered, half to himself. “Fear is a poison. Don’t let it spread.”

He forced himself to breathe, to slow down. To ignore the tingling cold in his fingers and toes. 

He had been late. For the first time in his life. 

Savric was never late. He made a point of never being late. A senator’s aid should never be late. Savric had aspirations. He was being groomed as the next Senatorial candidate. He had to do everything right. Just right. He has so much to live up to.

And today was too important to be late. This vote was perhaps the most important vote of Savric’s life. Of all of their lives. 

Today the Induparan Crown Worlds would choose – to stay with the Galactic Republic or join the Confederacy of Independent Systems. 

After weeks of debate, the vote was too close to call. It would come down to the oratory skills of the speakers. The future of their worlds hung on those words and how they were delivered.

Savric had been up all night going over and over the speech he had written for his senator. Extolling the virtues of the Republic – a system that had protected the galaxy for a hundred life times. Praising the Jedi as leaders and protectors on these unsettled times. For if the Force was with them, how could they be the wrong side?

But there had been so much traffic around the city. Speeders and air-ships everywhere. It was the day before the Lunar Festival and everyone wanted to get their shopping done before the sundown. 

Savric should have known that. Should have planned ahead for it. But he hadn’t, and he was late.

Which meant he was running up the front stairs of the Senatorial Complex when the bomb went off. 

“Fear is a poison. Don’t let it spread.” 

Sav told himself that over and over, holding his side tight against the blood soaking his robes. 

He wanted to pray. He wanted to believe in the Force. The way his family did. The way he’d written it in the speech. 

His sister was a Jedi. She’d been taken to the temple before he was born. 

His parents were proud. So very proud.

Their Jedi daughter. 

They never saw her again, but they never stopped talking about her. 

It was all they ever talked about, his whole entire childhood.

Becoming a senator was Sav’s way of proving himself. Of making his parents proud.

So maybe, just maybe, they’d talk about him for once.

Now he was going to die. A mere senator’s aid. Torn by shrapnel, and poisoned by fear. 

His hands and feet were so cold, his teeth were starting to chatter. He knew he was in shock, that the fear was going to kill him. 

Fear of dying as no-one. For nothing. 

Would his parents even mourn him? He closed his eyes, knowing the poison was spreading. 

He almost didn’t hear the sound of boots, of blaster fire. 

Not till someone bent to touch his neck, checking for a pulse. He opened his eyes to a Jedi woman kneeling over him. For a moment he felt a warm flush of hope. Was this his sister, come to save him? Had the Republic arrived just in the nick of time? 

But the Jedi looked down at him with hard eyes. Eyes that had seen too much death. And didn’t feel the fear if it any more. “He’ll live. Move on.” 

Sav could see in her eyes she’d already been poisoned. It had made her numb to the horrors of war. Her expression was as blank as the faceplates of the clone troopers who flanked her.

They left him propped against the ruins of a wall, the trooper’s boots clattering over the uneven ground. 

They never came back for him.

It was never clear who bombed the city centre on one of the busiest days of the local year. Or which faction targeted the Senatorial Complex the day of the vote.

But Sav knew exactly who left him for dead. 

Months later when the Induparan Crown Worlds were able to rebuild enough of their power structure to meet again, Senator Savric Ishsha took his place on the podium. 

Leaning heavily on a cane, he spoke softly, fervently - of the corruption of the Galactic Senate, of the oppression it wielded through the “Grand” Army of the Republic. And of the Jedi; whose legend had outgrown their truth. Till the very shadows they cast were used to spread fear.

“Fear is a poison. And we cannot let it spread.”

**Author's Note:**

> I owe the greatest debt of gratitude to Josh King for being my beta. I couldn't have asked for anyone better. I know he’s probably sick of hearing it, but I will be thanking him every day for the next month, and long after.


End file.
